In the last two minutes of a basketball game, especially one as close as the one between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night, fans often don’t yawn in the stands.
However, the last 1:50 of the game was delayed by a total of 22 minutes due to clock issues and replay reviews, which left players and coaches fuming on the court and confused spectators.
With 1:52 remaining in the game, Steph Curry missed a three-point shot, which set the whole thing off. Although the ball left the hands of Andrew Wiggins and Jaxson Hayes and went out of bounds, it was referred to as Warriors ball rather than Lakers ball.
Darvin Ham, the head coach of the Lakers, contested the call as a result, but he had no idea it would cause such a delay that people like Bad Bunny, Kim Kardashian, and several others were waiting to resume the game courtside and throughout Crypto.com Arena.
The Lakers challenge was successful, but the officials weren’t merely focusing on who had the ball. Additionally, they were examining LeBron James’ three-pointer that he made over Curry at 2:07.
James was ruled to have over the line before to making the shot that converted it to a 12-point lead by the referees.
Officials ordered a jump ball as it went off both Hayes and Wiggins when play finally resumed. However, the play resulted in a coach’s challenge once more.
In an attempt to recover possession, Warriors volatile forward Draymond Green shoved Austin Reaves off with Hayes’ tip to the baseline. This one moved a little faster since Green was out of bounds when the Lakers got the ball.
However, the stoppages in play continued as the shot clock was malfunctioning. Four attempts were made to resume play, but the clock was not cooperating, which ultimately led to boos from the crowd.
Things got so bad that the Lakers’ public address announcer had to verbalize the 24-second shot clock in five-second intervals, starting at 20.
“I haven’t seen that,” Ham told The Athletic. “I haven’t seen that before.